Waldneukirchen is a municipality in the district of

Steyr-Land Bezirk Steyr-Land is a district of the state of Upper Austria in Austria. Municipalities Towns (''Städte'') are indicated in boldface; market towns (''Marktgemeinden'') in ''italics''; suburbs, hamlets and other subdivisions of a municipality ...

in the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n state of

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, a ...

Geography

The extension of Waldneukirchen is 5.5 km from north to south and 8.5 km from west to east. 14.8% of the area is forested, 74.2% is used for agriculture (for comparison: this value is 41% in the political district of Steyr-Land). The municipality extends from the Molasse area of the Alpine foothills to the Steyrtal. The place is also called "The Gate to the Steyrtal". The sediments of the Flysch Zone are on the one hand deposits of a sea from the

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

, on the other hand

Marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part o ...

and sandstone sediments from the Old Tertiary. The landscape here in Waldneukirchen was decisively shaped in the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

, namely in the

Ice Ages An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

. In the cold periods of the Günz-, Mindel-, and Rissis Age, the Krems glacier, coming from the south, pushed with its huge glacier tongue far into the

Alpine foothills The Alpine foothills, or Prealps (german: Voralpen; french: Préalpes; it, Prealpi; ), may refer generally to any foothills at the base of the Alps in Europe. They are the transition zone between the High Alps and the Swiss Plateau and the Bavar ...

and stored in the municipality of Waldneukirchen abounds in massive

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...

trees made of gravel, sand and clay. The glacier brooks that emerged from the ice, forerunners of the

Steyr Steyr (; Central Bavarian: ''Steia'') is a statutory city, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. It is the administrative capital, though not part of Steyr-Land District. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and the 3rd l ...

, built up bulkheads in the ice-free area during the cold times. During the warm periods, some of these gravel deposits are then removed through the cutting channels. Large parts of the northern plateau of the municipality belong to this gravel area of the elevated terrace above the Steyr river, up to which the municipality extends in the south- At the time of the most recent glaciation (

Würm The Würm is a river in Bavaria, Germany, right tributary of the Amper. The length of the river is , or including the ''Steinbach'', the main feed of Lake Starnberg. It drains the overflow from Lake Starnberg and flows swiftly through the villag ...

), silt-rich cover layers were blown up in all ice-free (periglacial) parts of the plateau northwest of the Steyr. Today they represent the covering clay. The rainwater is not diverted into the depths, but flows mostly in the municipality to the north via Fernbach, Binderbach into the Krems. In this way, the erosion has shaped the moat landscape so characteristic of the flysch. The agricultural soils in the municipality of Waldneukirchen consist - according to the explanations of the soil map 1: 25000 - in their A-Horizont s mainly of loamy silt, are medium humus and lime-free, and clearly crumbly, the B-Horizont e are mostly loamy

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

or sandy loam, which is usually free of lime. Below that, from a depth of approx. 50 cm, lies the horizon with lime-free, loamy silt.Federal Institute for Agriculture: Explanations of the soil map 1: 25000; Mapping area Grünburg, Upper Austria. KB 127. Vienna 1988

Municipal organization

The municipal area comprises the following seven localities: * Eggmair * Furtberg * Großmengersdorf * Pesendorf * Sankt Nikola * Steinersdorf * Waldneukirchen

Population development

In 2001 the community had 2254 inhabitants according to the census, in 2019 a little less: 2194. The population development since the 1st VZ 1869 (1732 Ew. Then, since then the population has been slowly increasing) and other socio-economic parameters for the community can be found in the. The Statistics.at sample census in 2006 revealed 1104 persons in employment (employment rate of 51.3%); after the position in the job only 14% in agriculture and forestry, 25.7% in the production of goods. In 2017 the number of people employed in agriculture and forestry decreased to 8.2% (= 100 people) Employment statistics 2017
/ref> Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.7) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:2300 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal AlignBars = late ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:500 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:100 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo PlotData= color:skyblue width:14 shift:(-50,-5) fontsize:M anchor:till bar:1869 from:0 till:1732 text:1,732 bar:1880 from:0 till:1687 text:1.687 bar:1890 from:0 till:1747 text:1.747 bar:1900 from:0 till:1789 text:1.789 bar:1910 from:0 till:1789 text:1.789 bar:1923 from:0 till:1791 text:1.791 bar:1934 from:0 till:1839 text:1.839 bar:1939 from:0 till:1750 text:1.750 bar:1951 from:0 till:2101 text:2.101 bar:1961 from:0 till:1866 text:1.866 bar:1971 from:0 till:1921 text:1.921 bar:1981 from:0 till:1962 text:1.962 bar:1991 from:0 till:2130 text:2.130 bar:2001 from:0 till:2250 text:2.250 bar:2011 from:0 till:2246 text:2.246 bar:2020 from:0 till:2230 text:2.230 TextData= fontsize:S pos:(35,20) text:"Zahlenleiste: Einwohner; Quelle: Statistik Austria"

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Steyr-Land District